Thursday, April 15, 2010

My very good friend Erin celebrated (endured) her 40th birthday this week. I think she's the cutest 40 year old there ever was. Freals. Anyway, she's had several birthday tributes on various blogs and this isn't one of them. This is an embarrassing moment dodged. And a birthday gift forfeited.

One time I was at Erin's house and she graciously offered me some hot chocolate, which she knows I love. She's nice like that. But she served the hot choc in some gnarly, nasty mugs. Mismatched, logo-riddled mugs. Mine had the handle broken off. Srsly, Erin, hot chocolate deserves better than that. For Christmas Erin had given me one of my favorite gifts: a delicate, pretty china-white mug with a scrolly black design and my initial on it. It's the only thing I'll drink my cocoa out of now. It's so elegant and lovely and makes me feel fancy. And whenever I look at it I think of the delicious taste of my winter-time bff, hot chocolate. Thanks Erin, you know how I love my mug!So, for Erin's birthday I decided to return the favor. Only I got her a set of 8 mugs, so she could serve guests and even her whole family tummy-warming drinks in a lovely receptacle and not in chipped-up, accumulated-from-the-drug-reps, not-for-'company' mugs. I bought them and wrapped them in a beautiful package, Kim Johnston-style, with color-coordinated bows and ribbon. I put the box in my car and waited for the right time to give them to her.On the day of her birthday I was at her house, in her kitchen, having a great little chat and thinking she was such a supercute 40 year old chick-dawg, when I noticed some of her kitchen cupboards with glass-fronts. Actually, what I noticed was what rested neatly behind the glass doors: a set of perfectly lovely, gray, patterned....MUGS! Were those there the whole time? Even when she served me hot cocoa in the second-hand cups? I don't know. What I do know is she's already set in the mug department. Why did she not use one of them for me? I choose to think it's because she thinks of me as family, and as such didn't think to get out the 'good china' for little old Kimi. That's okay. I take it as a compliment. But now, what to do with the brightly-colored package sitting in my car?

I had also gotten her an iTunes gift card. I always get her an iTunes gift card. She LOVES iTunes and is always searching out the latest and greatest new bands and songs and stuff. The best part is she shares her finds with others and that includes me, which is awesome because she has great taste in music and I get to benefit from it. So I encourage the iTunes obsesh with gift cards here and there. I had slipped the gift card in with the birthday card, so when it came time to cough up a gift I only gave her the card. She didn't even know she missed out on a whole 'nother present! And the best part is I never told her........until now.